Under The Hood

I use Google Chrome as my internet browser, and it works wonderfully. It's fast, it's easy, it's uncluttered. But last week I found myself, in Google-speak, needing to do something "under the hood." I can use Chrome easily without having the least clue how it works, but if I want to get the most out of it, I should check out the settings and options "under the hood." 

This struck me as an apt analogy for the study of literature. Today I asked my brand-new junior high Intro to Lit students why we should bother to study literature - why not just read and enjoy a book and let that be that? They gave some fantastic answers, one of which was that we study literature to "see how it works" and be able to understand and appreciate other books even more.

We talked about how reading the book through for entertainment is like using Google Chrome, but learning about antagonists, protagonists, characterization, climax, conflict, connotation, dialogue, figurative language, flashbacks, foreshadowing, genre, plot, point of view, resolution, setting, style, symbol, theme, is like opening the hood to another dimension. You learn how to recognize the skill of an author and see how they are using various elements to produce a reaction in you. The reading experience becomes richer and fuller - you're getting more out of the book. 

Today we were discussing The Westing Game, a mind-bending puzzle-type mystery. The character who read the clues properly and deduced the answer was nicknamed Turtle. I told my students that as they read they are detectives looking "under the hood," deciphering clues, putting together circumstances, statements, and actions to get to the bottom of why characters are the way they are and why they do what they do. I said I wanted them to be Turtles. They laughed at that (some protesting the nickname). But it inspired one student to send me the following image tonight: Behold our Mascot!

 

School Year By the Numbers

Here was a fun exercise. I started wondering how much work my students did last year. I had 25 students in 3 classes, and here is their school year by the numbers: 

Collectively, 

•  They read 46 authors 
• They read 8,283 pages of prose
• They read 159 poems
• They wrote 165 papers

 My C.S. Lewis class collected 640 quotes and journaled 110 pages in one semester. 

Of course this little collection of numbers doesn't actually communicate much about any individual student's year, since most of them took only one class! Furthermore, 200 pages of Dickens probably contains double the words of 200 pages of Lewis, so the number of pages is pretty irrelevant. Still, CTT students got through a lot last year, and I'm proud of what they accomplished!

(Oh, and this means that last school year I personally read 46 authors, 8,283 pages of prose, 159 poems...and graded 165 papers.  Whew. :)

C.S. Lewis Creativity

This spring I gave my C.S. Lewis students a challenge - to integrate their study of Lewis with their own personal interests, hobbies, or talents. Instead of a traditional academic term paper, they tackled a special term project, finding a creative way to present themes and content from Lewis in a medium that particularly interested them. 

The results were a great change from the norm. The musicians in class set Lewis poems to music and wrote/performed original songs inspired by The Weight of Glory, The Screwtape Letters, and Till We Have Faces. We even got an original C.S. Lewis rap. One artist drew a beautiful and detailed map and timeline of Narnia, while another produced a series of digital art pieces representing most of our reading list. One student made a music video to show how the worldviews that Lewis critiques in That Hideous Strength are still alive and well in our popular culture. We had a short story based on the Narnia Chronicles, and the transcript of a trial set in a dystopian science fiction future where a noted Christian apologist (based on Lewis) has his ideas put on trial. 

The variety and creativity of these projects was a delight. In so many ways, Lewis's writings are full of ideas that should go beyond our academic lives and infuse our daily walk as Christians. My goal was to have students connect those ideas to other parts of their lives, and I think they did a great job doing so. Below is just one example from a collection of great projects; a piece on The Screwtape Letters by Elise (click for larger): 

What are your kids reading?

I am in the process of designing my new Intro to Literature class, which will include books typically categorized as "Young Adult" or teen fiction. Thus, I was very interested to read this article from the Wall Street Journal about the dark, disturbing nature of much contemporary teen fiction, along with this response by Professor Alan Jacobs.

Jacobs asks a helpful question--can we say that some books are better than others, and some are simply bad for you to read? In our relativistic culture, the answer is almost always "no." Even among people who are willing to make quality distinctions, the argument is often that even though the kids may be reading low-quality books, "at least they're reading." I do not buy this argument. I am about as staunch a supporter of reading as you could find, but I think we make a big mistake if we place the act of reading above all considerations of content and quality. In our screen-dominated culture, the temptation is to worry when we see kids glued to the TV and rejoice when we see them sitting down with a book. But as much as I value it, I cannot say that reading in and of itself is a supreme good. If a book contains neither truth, beauty, nor goodness, the time you spent reading it would have been better spent elsewhere. Even watching, dare I say it, a movie. (If that movie contains a modicum of truth, beauty, and goodness, of course.)

This is not to say I believe children should only be exposed to rainbows and roses. As I've written elsewhere (here and here), depressing or even "dark" literature has an important place in portraying our fallen world as it is--in need of a savior. Literature cannot be redemptive if it doesn't portray the fall; an unfallen world has no need for redemption. "Dark" literature can teach us a lot about the depths of the human heart, and about what it takes to fight darkness. (C.S. Lewis has a great discussion of this in his essay "On Three Ways of Writing For Children" when he argues against the idea that children's literature should contain nothing frightening.) But I think we can acknowledge that this type of darkness can be portrayed in a helpful way or an unhelpful, even dangerous, way. Wisdom should direct our reading choices.

Even if the issue isn't one of quality, there is simply the question of age-appropriateness. This is particularly tricky with children who are prolific readers (as I was) and likely to read anything they can get their hands on, whether it is suitable for their age or not.

Each family will take a slightly different approach on this "wisdom issue" of what your kids should read and when. But I think a good rule of thumb is this: Be involved. Be wise. Talk to your kids about what they read.  

Thanks for a great year!

It's hard to believe another year of CTT classes is over! I didn't keep up with this blog as well as I wished to, but I hope to post periodically this summer, both looking back at the past year and looking forward to next year. So keep checking back!

 Many thanks to my students and their families for a wonderful 2010-11 school year! My students ranged in age from 13 to 18, and lived from California to Rhode Island to Italy. Each class had its own unique flavor. American Lit challenged and questioned and picked sides. (Team Hawthorne versus Team Poe, anyone?)  British Lit was lively, intense, creative, and full of class spirit. My C.S. Lewis students spent a whole semester thoughtfully applying Lewis's writing their own lives and walks with Christ--it was inspiring to watch. 

One of my goals as a teacher is to teach students to appreciate literature even if it isn't to their personal taste--several of my students told me they had learned that very thing. One said, "Miss Mattson taught me to love literature." Right there--students like that make this even more of my dream job than it was already!

I'm thankful for a wonderful year, and already looking ahead to the fall with great anticipation.